Posted 29 June, 2008 in NM News
6/27/08
Stages broaden New Mexico’s filming prospects
By THOMAS MCLEAN
The gritty urban tales that Will Eisner brought to life in “The Spirit” comicbooks of the 1940s are a world
removed from the desert charm and sweeping vistas of Albuquerque, N.M.
But technology brings even the strangest bedfellows together, as shown by Albuquerque Studios’ state-of-
the-art soundstages, which made it possible for the city to attract Frank Miller’s effects-heavy adaptation of
“The Spirit.”
Producer Deborah Del Prete had previously filmed in New Mexico and liked working there, but it took the
kind of technical facilities that could handle the greenscreen-heavy virtual shoot planned for “The Spirit” to
bring her back. “Without them having built that studio, they couldn’t have attracted a movie like ours and a
lot of the other movies that have come in after us,” she says.
Jeremy Hariton, senior VP of the facility, says that was a major motivation for building the studio, which
opened in June 2007 and welcomed “The Spirit” as its first feature film production. “Rather than being a
location destination, we’re able to attract films like ‘The Spirit’ that aren’t here to shoot the vistas,” he says.
Like the film adaptations of Miller’s own comics in “Sin City” and “300,” “The Spirit” is a cutting-edge
virtual movie that needed the kind of large space and technical requirements only a studio can provide.
A visit to the set last November revealed the production spread across the studio’s two largest stages, a
space totaling 48,000 square feet, which had been divided into quadrants for shooting. Each section featured
a small chunk of physical set, such as a truck, a patch of land or the side of a building, behind which either
a greenscreen or blackscreen was draped from ceiling to floor.
The setup enabled Miller to direct a shot in which Gabriel Macht, who plays the Spirit, flips up from one
level of a fire escape to another guided by wires that would later be painted out digitally. Later the same
day, Miller moved across the stage to handle another shot, in which the masked Macht delivers a solid right
cross to the jaw of Samuel L. Jackson’s Octopus.
Supporting the production were comfortable, modern production offices that housed props, costumes and an
art department covered in sketches and drawings, some by Miller himself, of Central City and its denizens.
Having such facilities bolsters the state’s contention that its financial incentives are paying off. While “The
Spirit” is completing more than 1,800 visual effects shots in Santa Monica and San Francisco, Albuquerque
Studios is hardly standing empty: “Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins” has since swooped in to
occupy all six of the facility’s existing stages, and two additional 18,000-square-foot buildings are set to
accommodate season two of AMC’s “Breaking Bad.”
“We’ve pretty much rented the whole place, so it’s almost like our own little studio,” says “Terminator”
location manager Michael J. Burmeister.
Unlike “The Spirit,” the production is doing nearly half its shooting on exteriors, most of them within a one-
hour driving radius of Albuquerque Studios. The team is also building a number of sets on raw land
adjacent to the facility, using the space almost like a backlot.
“They start out in the desert, like Palmdale or Lancaster, so we’re able to take advantage of the New Mexico
landscape, then try to match some things in L.A.,” Burmeister says. “If you’re trying to do Times Square, it’s
a little more challenging.” Unless, of course, you do it on greenscreen.
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